It's a good idea. But its side effect could be that people are more encouraged to write replies instead of just voting (resulting in too many me-too comments).

It's a good idea. But its side effect could be that people are more encouraged to write replies instead of just voting (resulting in too many me-too comments). We will never know without trying it out though. An alternative is to have the arrows straddle the top line of a comment instead. The down-vote button will be right beside the 'flag' link which may or may not have a desired side effect. Yet another idea with possibly least side effect is to have them straddle '[x] points'.